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How long do SSD's last?

jwolf6589 said:
By the way I am using a Mac not a PC.
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They function exactly the same. I've had 3 MacBooks/Macbook Pro's with SSD's and I've used maybe 20-30 SSD's in various desktops and servers. Yet to have one go wrong.

I swear by Samsung SSD's. Although I'm aware Apple often use Toshiba flash which I'm sure works great with Apple's proprietary controller.
 
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827538 said:
They function exactly the same. I've had 3 MacBooks/Macbook Pro's with SSD's and I've used maybe 20-30 SSD's in various desktops and servers. Yet to have one go wrong.

I swear by Samsung SSD's. Although I'm aware Apple often use Toshiba flash which I'm sure works great with Apple's proprietary controller.
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I am using a Samsung SSD
 
jwolf6589 said:
Had a 500GB SSD installed in my Mac yesterday and its now lightning fast! MS Office apps open in seconds instead of a minute. Installing updates, rebooting, and such is now super fast! How long will this SSD last? Spinners can last awhile or they can die in 3-5 years it depends. I hope SSD's last allot longer.
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HDDs can last seven years or longer and they usually last longer in a stationary environment such as a desktop as opposed to mobile laptops that tend to get shaken and bumped around. SSDs can last even longer than HDDs. A high quality SSD should last more than five years and could last ten years or longer. The big advantage of an SSD besides faster reads and writes is that it's not a physically spinning drive so there are no mechanical parts to wear out. SSDs are better for mobile computers and devices because they are not as susceptible to the same kind of physical shock damage that can occur to HDDs.

However SSDs can and do wear out. They have a limited lifespan based on the number of reads and writes made to the memory of the drive. Enabling memory drive resource management software like TRIM for SSDs helps to spread out the reads and writes to different locations in the drive memory and areas cans be recognized and mapped to lower the failure rate. This can improve the lifespan and reliability of SSDs. The other thing that can go wrong with both HDDs and SSDs is related to weaknesses in the electronics that are supporting the drive or memory system but those are usually manufacturing related defects that can happen with any part of a computer.

The amount of available RAM for the computer operating system to utilize for resources can help take some of the burden off of the HDD or SSD. When the OS runs out of available memory for resources it will use the HDD or SSD to cache data that normally would be stored in RAM. The less RAM a system has then the more often the OS would have to access this system cache on the drive. This is why having more RAM on your Mac (16GB or 32GB or more for the current MacOS) is a good idea since it could help prolong the life of your SSD or internal non-removable memory drive.
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jwolf6589 said:
I am using a Samsung SSD
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Samsung has a good reputation for the reliability of their SSDs. The 500GB Samsung SSD should work well for your Mac. If you are running only 4GB or 8GB RAM on your older Mac then at some time in the future you could also upgrade your RAM to 16GB. It's not critical but it would help optimize your Mac's system performance even more. My preference is to use the recommended system specific Crucial brand of RAM for Mac in matched pairs but any compatible name brand RAM sold in matched pairs would be good.
 
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SoCalReviews said:
HDDs can last seven years or longer and they usually last longer in a stationary environment such as a desktop as opposed to mobile laptops that tend to get shaken and bumped around. SSDs can last even longer than HDDs. A high quality SSD should last more than five years and could last ten years or longer. The big advantage of an SSD besides faster reads and writes is that it's not a physically spinning drive so there are no mechanical parts to wear out. SSDs are better for mobile computers and devices because they are not as susceptible to the same kind of physical shock damage that can occur to HDDs.

However SSDs can and do wear out. They have a limited lifespan based on the number of reads and writes made to the memory of the drive. Enabling memory drive resource management software like TRIM for SSDs helps to spread out the reads and writes to different locations in the drive memory and areas cans be recognized and mapped to lower the failure rate. This can improve the lifespan and reliability of SSDs. The other thing that can go wrong with both HDDs and SSDs is related to weaknesses in the electronics that are supporting the drive or memory system but those are usually manufacturing related defects that can happen with any part of a computer.

The amount of available RAM for the computer operating system to utilize for resources can help take some of the burden off of the HDD or SSD. When the OS runs out of available memory for resources it will use the HDD or SSD to cache data that normally would be stored in RAM. The less RAM a system has then the more often the OS would have to access this system cache on the drive. This is why having more RAM on your Mac (16GB or 32GB or more for the current MacOS) is a good idea since it could help prolong the life of your SSD or internal non-removable memory drive.
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Samsung has a good reputation for the reliability of their SSDs. The 500GB Samsung SSD should work well for your Mac. If you are running only 4GB or 8GB RAM on your older Mac then at some time in the future you could also upgrade your RAM to 16GB. It's not critical but it would help optimize your Mac's system performance even more. My preference is to use the recommended system specific Crucial brand of RAM for Mac in matched pairs but any compatible name brand RAM sold in matched pairs would be good.
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I think 8GB's is the max of RAM that can fit in my Mac. Besides I am not running photoshop, graphics apps besides Photos, or anything fancy just running standard mac apps and I now get to use MS Office more than before since it launches and runs so much faster than on a regular HDD. I still however will use iWorks and Mail primarily, but will use MS Word on occasion due to its more power and more features. However the Windows version I use at work launches a little faster on a SSD, but 1-2 seconds is not that big of a deal. Windows MS Office runs better than the Mac on a standard HDD over a Mac HDD anyways so I would expect the same behavior on a SSD. MS built their app to run faster on their OS anyways.
 
timidpimpin said:
8GB RAM is more than enough for most people. Even in 2019. Fact.
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I am not running iMovie except on rare rare occasion. I am not doing graphics editing (except on rare occasion in Photos) and I am not running Parallels. I may install Win 10 in Bootcamp again (its free) but not sure as I almost never used Windows. I use Windows daily at work and that's enough. No need for it at home. So in my case 8GB's would be plenty.
 
SoCalReviews said:
When the OS runs out of available memory for resources it will use the HDD or SSD to cache data that normally would be stored in RAM.
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This is true, but it is important to note that sometimes the OS will use page swapping even if all the RAM is not utilized. Unless your Mac has a lot of RAM, or you hardly utilize the available RAM, this happens often on the MacOS.

I am not recommending this to the OP, but it is possible to turn off virtual memory on a Mac to force the OS to use just the RAM. I have this done on my Mac Pro.
 
vertical smile said:
This is true, but it is important to note that sometimes the OS will use page swapping even if all the RAM is not utilized. Unless your Mac has a lot of RAM, or you hardly utilize the available RAM, this happens often on the MacOS.

I am not recommending this to the OP, but it is possible to turn off virtual memory on a Mac to force the OS to use just the RAM. I have this done on my Mac Pro.
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Apple has made this is a complex thing to do under OSX. In the old Mac OS (pre OSX) one could do this in the control panel.
 
jwolf6589 said:
Apple has made this is a complex thing to do under OSX. In the old Mac OS (pre OSX) one could do this in the control panel.
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Yup, and I think you could even allocate the amount of storage dedicated to virtual memory IIRC.
 
vertical smile said:
This is true, but it is important to note that sometimes the OS will use page swapping even if all the RAM is not utilized. Unless your Mac has a lot of RAM, or you hardly utilize the available RAM, this happens often on the MacOS.

I am not recommending this to the OP, but it is possible to turn off virtual memory on a Mac to force the OS to use just the RAM. I have this done on my Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

That's good to know but either way I'd want as much RAM as possible especially if I was running an SSD.
timidpimpin said:
8GB RAM is more than enough for most people. Even in 2019. Fact.
Click to expand...
The 2012 MBP can use 16GB total (2 x 8GB). Mine has 16GB installed. It uses 1.5GB for video. I'm not sure how much VRAM is allocated if you have 8GB but if it uses 1GB that cuts it down to 7GB at most. MacOS likes to have 4GB minimum to run. That leaves you with 3GB for programs and anything else needed in real time. That really isn't very much RAM left. When I have several apps open at the same time I see my available free RAM drop to 4GB (12GB RAM being used). If I was running only 8GB total system RAM that would be utilizing the page swapping.
 
SoCalReviews said:
That's good to know but either way I'd want as much RAM as possible especially if I was running an SSD.

The 2012 MBP can use 16GB total (2 x 8GB). Mine has 16GB installed. It uses 1.5GB for video. I'm not sure how much VRAM is allocated if you have 8GB but if it uses 1GB that cuts it down to 7GB at most. MacOS likes to have 4GB minimum to run. That leaves you with 3GB for programs and anything else needed in real time. That really isn't very much RAM left. When I have several apps open at the same time I see my available free RAM drop to 4GB (12GB RAM being used). If I was running only 8GB total system RAM that would be utilizing the page swapping.
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I agree. For many uses 8gab isn’t ‘quite’ enough, and 16gb is more than enough.

The ‘just right’ amount in most cases would probably be 12gb, but that’s not an option on most systems so 16gb is the safe bet.
 
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vertical smile said:
Yup, and I think you could even allocate the amount of storage dedicated to virtual memory IIRC.
Click to expand...

Yes you could and could also create a RAM disk.
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BigBoy2018 said:
I agree. For many uses 8gab isn’t ‘quite’ enough, and 16gb is more than enough.

The ‘just right’ amount in most cases would probably be 12gb, but that’s not an option on most systems so 16gb is the safe bet.
Click to expand...

I don't think 16GB can be installed on my Mac.
 
jwolf6589 said:
Why does a SSD need this and a HDD does not?
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The underlying hardware is not comparable. If it was, you would never see this discussion. It would just be buried deep in the way the OS handles writes.
 
They last long, and they have proven that in practice.

First MacBook Pro with SSD was released in 2012. To this day, most of these MBPs are working fine with their original SSDs.


For the same period (we are talking about 7 years here), you can expect even mechanical drive to fail. So, my conclusion (based on everything that I've heard and seen so far) is that SSDs are not any less relaiable than the mechanical drives.
 
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